Hello again, y'all. I cowrote this with the lovely Valnixyrie. We're busy bees guys. Busy writing bees. Anyway, this is an AU where DSM is an opening act for Muse, but much of the other stuff stayed the same. That's about all you really need to know for opening info. So with that, enjoy.

Beca always loved the smell of the air at a concert. So many people who loved the same music so much together in the same area, it changed how everything felt somehow. Couple that with the fact that she was excited out of her damn mind but trying to play it cool, and it almost felt like electricity buzzing along her skin.

"Are you coming, Becs? We still have to find our seats and the opening act is in like fifteen minutes," Chloe said, looking back at Beca as the crowd surged around them. The rest of the Bellas with them were following behind Aubrey as if it was three years ago all over again, not stopping to check on the others behind them.

"Yeah, uh yeah, it's just." She gestured around vaguely. "I just really like concerts." She shrugged and started to walk forward, elbowing people out of her way, dodging people who didn't see her, the normal things she had to do as a short person to navigate through crowds.

"Well, duh," Chloe said before slipping between two people standing in the middle of the road. "You are going to be a music producer. Aren't concerts sort of part of that?" Chloe continued when they came back together again.

"Yeah, sort of, but now it's just-"

Chloe cut Beca off. "Muse is like your super favoritest band ever, I know." She smiled at her. "Why do you think we're all here."

"Oh come on, you like Muse too. I've heard you singing some of their songs in the shower."

"You correct me when I get the lyrics wrong through the bathroom door." Chloe shot Beca an amused look.

Beca didn't really have anything to say to that. Chloe had a point there.

They managed to catch up with the rest of the Bellas, filing down one of the rows, looking for their seats. Aubrey was checking the numbers diligently while Fat Amy and Stacie just looked around the crowd and called out if they saw any hot guys or girls. Chloe slipped beside Aubrey and grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers.

The group made their way up about halfway and finally found their row and in turn their seats. Beca smiled. The seats were fucking perfect. She was glad they'd spent a fuck ton of money just to make sure they weren't up in the nosebleeds. This was totally going to be worth it. Inside she was bouncing on her toes.

Aubrey sat down in her seat primly. "There are more people here than I thought there would be."

"Why?" Beca said, sitting on the other side of her, Fat Amy already hogging the armrest. Typical.

"They aren't terribly mainstream, are they?" Aubrey shrugged.

"Uh, sort of? I mean they're not like top forty or anything, but most people know them." Sometimes her friends misconceptions about the music world, when they basically lived in the music world, boggled her mind.

Before Aubrey had the chance to retort, the lights in the arena dimmed. The auditorium erupted in cheers and excited squeals. It took every ounce of restraint in Beca's body not to start flailing around like an overly enthusiastic six-year-old. The announcer of the evening appeared on the stage, running off his pre-scripted lines of advertisement and sponsorship. Beca wished he would just get on with it so they could get through the opening act and onto the marvel that is Muse.

After what seemed like an eternity and a half of waiting for the man to finish his spiel , the stage was finally empty again as the stadium turned black. Beca took a deep breath. Ok, opening act. She hadn't even looked up who was performing before Muse, she'd just seen Muse and instantly bought the tickets and the Bellas had followed suit. She hoped they were good, but even if they were bad she would fucking sit through them just to get to Muse. Though if her ears were bleeding that was going to severely impede her enjoyment.

The lights came up again and there was huge group of people in the middle of the stage. There were at least fifteen bodies on the platform, all dressed alike in black ensembles half made out of mesh. They were admittedly a bit intimidating, to say the least. The screaming around her intensified and a bunch of the people in the arena started chanting. It took Beca a second to figure out what the words were.

"DSM! JA!"

Beca squinted. DSM, she had never heard them before, but if the crowd was shouting 'ja' at them, she wondered what the odds were that the group was German.

Music started to play. Beca recognized it, but it was faster than normal. It wasn't until a few bars into the first song that she realized, it wasn't music like you'd normally hear at a concert. She didn't hear any real instruments, no bass line, it sounded more like what they did with the Bellas. Oh, this group was a cappella. Like, scary, unbelievably good a cappella. Beca's interest and attention immediately skyrocketed and focused on the stage.

A blonde woman came forward and started to sing. "And another one bites the dust. Oh why can I not conquer love?" She had a slight German accent, and that somehow made it even better.

Beca's jaw hit the floor before she had a clue of what was going on. Holy aca-moly. There was no way a human being actually sounded like that. No, fucking, god damn way. It was like an angel was singing to her. And she looked like an angel, blonde hair and perfect face lit up by the stage lights perfectly. She was not real, no chance in hell or high water.

"And I might have thought that we were one, wanted to fight this war without weapons," the angel continued to sing as a man stepped up beside her, even taller, and more intimidating. He had to be at least 6 feet tall, but probably more. Jesus, what did they feed them? Must be the schnitzel. Gotta be the damn schnitzel. Maybe the beer too. And maybe Miracle Grow. Where was any of that when she was growing? Oh right, in Germany since they were clearly mass producing giants.

"And I wanted it, I wanted it bad, but there were so many red flags," the man sang, voice deep and clear and melding well with the background singing. Clearly everyone in the group was just so fucking skilled they put the three time national a cappella championship winners to shame. "Now another one bites the dust."

The woman picked up the solo. "Yeah, let's be clear I trust no one."

The music behind them shifted, intertwining a new melody into the "Elastic Heart." Beca tilted her head for just a second trying to place it before the woman started to sing again.

"Rule number one is that you gotta have fun, but baby when you're done, you gotta be the first to run. Rule number two just don't get attached to, somebody you could lose, so le-let me tell you."

The man started to sing again, but Beca didn't shift her focus from the woman, choosing instead to watch the woman breathing slightly hard as she continued to dance along to their set choreography.

"Well I've got thick skin and an elastic heart, but your blade it might be too sharp. I'm like a rubberband until you pull too hard. Yeah I may snap and I move fast, but you won't see me fall apart."

The woman started to sing again and Beca was starting to get caught up in the overall narrative they were weaving together with the two songs. She hadn't ever imagined these two songs together, but somehow they worked. Beca wanted to meet whoever had done the mixing, but more importantly she wanted to meet the tall blonde drink of water in front of her, holy shit.

"Rule number three, wear your heart on your cheek, but never on your sleeve unless you want to taste defeat. Rule number four, gotta be looking pure, kiss him goodbye at the door and leave him wanting more, more."

The verse traded off again. "And I will stay up through the night, And let's be clear I won't close my eyes. And I know that I can survive, I'll walk through fire to save my life."

"This is how to be a heartbreaker," the woman sang, and Beca fucking agreed with that hands down. The woman could look at a person and break their heart. "Boys they like a little danger. We'll get him falling for a stranger, a player, singing I lo-lo-love you."

And it was back to the man and the melody to Heartbreaker faded slowly as he kept singing and Beca could sense the end of the song was near. The man was staring at the woman from across the stage, looking forlornly at her, but standing tall. She made no effort to look his way, instead doing just the opposite, deliberately ignoring him. Beca watched on in awe as the pair told a story not only through the lyrics but through their perfectly planned but oh-so-simple choreography. "And I want it, I want my life so bad, I'm doing everything I can. Then another one bites the dust. It's hard to lose a chosen one." The music started to fade and the spotlight was starting to focus on the man. "You did not break me. I'm still fighting for peace."

It went silent for just a moment before everyone erupted into cheers. Beca found herself screaming, waiting for the lights to come again so she could see the woman. Holy shit. That had been...she didn't even have words for it. How in the world had she never heard of these guys before? That was just. Wow.

The screams quieted as the lights came up again and Beca immediately found the blonde angel as the next song began. The first strains of Pompeii started and Beca's heart started to beat harder. Oh, she was in for it. Totally in for it. Four more songs were not going to be enough. But she was damn well going to enjoy them while they lasted. And by enjoy she meant she was going to be staring at the woman the entire time, but no one had to know that except her.

Beca looked around after the opening act was done, a little dazed, not exactly sure who she was anymore. Her mind had been blown. Totally and utterly blown into the next county, hell the next , y'know, maybe it was laying on the sidewalk somewhere in Berlin at this point. And now she wanted to meet the people behind that performance. Well, really just the blonde woman, but talking to others wouldn't hurt her. Probably.

The rest of her group was clapping and screaming. Fat Amy was calling out about how she wanted to be in a German man sandwich and Stacie was making bedroom eyes at half the group as they walked off stage. Beca swallowed and looked at Aubrey and Chloe on the other side of her. Aubrey was clapping politely, but Beca could see the tightness around her eyes that said she felt threatened by their perfection, even if she hadn't been the leader of the Bellas for three years now. Chloe was just happy, as always.

She turned to Beca with a smile. "That was really great for an opening act, right?"

Beca nodded quickly. "Oh yeah, a lot better than I expected actually. I thought they were gonna kinda suck like most opening acts, you know?"

"Yeah, cool that they didn't though."

Beca glanced up at the stage again, now empty and dark and she made a snap decision. The best time to meet DSM was right now if she went to their merch booth. Everyone else would stay for the rest of the show. It was now or never. If she went afterwards she wouldn't really get to talk to them at all.

"Hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom really quick," Beca blurted out.

Chloe squinted at her. "You can't wait 'til intermission? You're going to miss some of the show."

Beca waved her off. "It's only part of the first song, you know? They play the eh songs first and save the best for last. It'll be fine."

Chloe shrugged. "All right." She stepped back for Beca to get through and Beca shot off, up the aisle and towards the merch booth like lightning.

She had been correct in her assumption that there wouldn't be many people out of their seats so she had an easy time getting to the DSM merchandise table. There were a few patrons buying t-shirts and posters but other than that, the booth was pretty vacant. She could see that the group hadn't shown up yet so she took the time to browse the inventory.

Beca ended up settling on a black zip-up hoodie complete with the DSM logo on the back in big white lettering. Just as she handed the cashier her money, a throng of black-clad giants came moseying up to the booth. Her pulse quickened and she felt her body churn with nerves.

She noticed that the whole group wasn't present, as their ranks seemed significantly smaller than they looked on stage. She didn't spot the blonde, at first. Her eyes scanned the crowd for her, finding the mega-tall man, the beat-boxing guy, and a few other soloists. They all began to intermingle with the few people who had been waiting alongside her at the table. She was beginning to think this had been a waste of time until she suddenly felt a presence to her right.

"Good choice." came a low, accented voice from behind her. The Bella spun on her heel and nearly collided with the person next to her. She managed to steady herself- until she realized who it was that had spoken to her, at which point she about fell flat on her ass with surprise. It was the blonde lead of DSM. Of course it was. Where the hell had she come from?

And of course she was even more astonishing up close. Beca should've expected as much. The German was a good six to eight inches taller than her, at least. She had released her hair from it's intricately braided bun, leaving it to fall around her shoulders in golden waves. The occasional strand twisted and crimped here and there, the remnants of a braid still apparent. Other than that, she looked pretty much the same as she had on stage.

Except now, Beca could see how unbelievably striking her features were. Her eyes were a piercing cross between light blue and green that the brunette could feel herself falling into. Her cheek, jaw, and brow bones looked as though they had been carved directly from the highest quality marble that money could buy. Her skin was glowing but didn't appear to have the slightest sign of sweat at all, though she could smell something warm and sweet. Cinnamon, perhaps?

"We match, now." The woman continued, snapping Beca out of her own head. One brow raised as she tugged on the shoulder of her own jacket, eyeing the Bella curiously. Right, she had just bought a DSM hoodie. Beca tried desperately to regain her composure in front of this girl, which was proving to be more difficult than it should've been.

"Right, yeah! It uh- it's a pretty cool design." Wow, Beca, come on. It's not like you've never spoken to an attractive person before, get it together!

The woman seemed unfazed by Beca's awkwardness.

"So, I assume you enjoyed the performance, if you're buying from our merchandise, ja?" She queried, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jacket.

"Ja, definitely!" Beca began enthusiastically before catching herself. Cool it Beca, you don't want her to think you're just some fan. "I mean, uh, yeah, you guys are pretty good." Nice save.

The German chuckled, "You're cute. And so tiny, like a little maus!" She looked at Beca appraisingly, shamelessly dragging her gaze over the smaller woman's body.

Beca felt her face and neck heat up under her scrutiny. "Well, you're all legs and golden perfection, so." What. The. Fuck. Where did that even come from? Holy shit. That was not the way to start a human conversation in any culture. What is happening right now?

"Thank you." The goddess replied, smoothly. She had to be used to receiving these types of compliments. All you had to do was look at her to know that.

"I'm Beca, by the way."

The opening beat of 'Dead Inside' shook through the building as Muse began their performance. The sounds of thousands of cheers erupted out into the halls and to the booth where they stood. Dammit, of course they would start with one of the best songs, exactly what Beca said wouldn't happen. Though, come to think of it, all of their songs were equally as wonderful, so it wouldn't have really made a difference what they opened with.

"Well, maus, I hope you'll come to our meet and greet once the concert is over. We'll be here, signing autographs and such. I'm sure you want to get back in there to see the show now, hmm?"

Beca nodded fervently. "Uh, yeah, Muse is, yeah."

The woman stepped closer. "They are good and you did pay money to see them, not us, ja?"

"Uh, ja." Beca was having a really hard time actually doing anything the woman said. She had to turn around and walk away like a normal human being but it literally felt like a magnet was holding her in place and she had metal in her shoes.

"Then I will see you later." The woman smirked and turned away.

"Yeah…" Still not moving, watching the woman walk away. Who looked that damn perfect from the back? God, her ass...

"Beca, there you are!" Chloe's shrill mother-bear tone sang over the pounding bass of the song. The brunette quickly spun around and met the redhead halfway, not wanting to have to explain the current situation to her best friend.

"You know the bathrooms are like, clear back there, right?" Chloe asked when they met halfway.

"Uh?" Beca's brain was still working really, really fucking slowly and she couldn't come up with a good excuse to why she was closer to the merch table than the bathrooms.

Chloe looked around and spotted the merch table immediately. She picked up the hoodie straight out of Beca's arms and looked at it. "DSM, you went to their merch table. You know, you could have just said that."

"Um, I just saw it on the way back from the bathroom."

"Uh, Becs, if you went to the bathroom, you wouldn't have even seen this place." Chloe leaned in, doing that whole disregarding boundaries thing. "You're blushing."

"Dude, we're missing the show, come on." Beca deflected, trying to end this exchange as soon as possible. She brushed past Chloe and marched back into the auditorium. Chloe followed her in a confused and skeptical huff, but once they were back into the concert it was a little too loud to talk and so she left it, and Beca had never been more grateful for concert noise in her life.

When they got to their seats again, 'Dead Inside' was ending and a new song was beginning. Beca smiled as she recognized the beginning chords of 'Madness' thumping through the speakers. Missing 'Dead Inside' was a bummer, but 'Madness' was one of her all-time favorites. Beca lost herself in the music, feeling it thump through her body. This was how she liked music the best, flowing through her like blood. And honestly, at that point, she wasn't entirely sure that her blood wasn't in fact liquid music. After the embarrassing encounter with DSM's leader, whose name she still did not know, and Chloe finding her, this was what she needed.

They played through half of the set and Beca was finally relaxed again, her friends dancing around her. She could feel Chloe's eyes on her periodically, but they didn't matter. She was here to enjoy the music. That's why she'd paid as much as she did, right?

Her eyes blinked open as Muse started to play 'Undisclosed Desires.' Another one of her favorites. She opened her mouth to sing along, turning to the side to look at Chloe when she saw the DSM woman again. She froze. The angel was standing not ten feet away from the Bellas' seats with her group in the side aisle. She swallowed hard as the music built around her, making her heart beat harder while her palms started to sweat and a riot of butterflies took over her stomach. Though, that riot of butterflies felt more like a horde of pterodactyls. She tried to keep her eyes on the stage, she really did. But with a woman who looked like that, it was impossible to say the least.

As if by magic, the woman's eyes found Beca's, darker blue now in the light reflected off the stage. The brunette's breath hitched sharply in her chest and her eyes blew wide as the German woman started to mouth along to the song, all while still staring at Beca.

"I want to reconcile the violence in your heart

I want to recognise your beauty's not just a mask

I want to exorcise the demons from your past

I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart."

Beca wasn't sure she could handle anymore of this. A woman, a really, really fucking hot woman was singing a song to her that was all about lovers and sex. Oh my holy shit balls. She was not okay.

And of course it didn't take Chloe long to realize that. She glanced over at Beca, realized in a second that she wasn't paying attention to the stage, and turned to see what she was looking at. She was by Beca's ear in a second. "Oh my god!" she shouted. "You went to see the hot blonde one didn't you?"

Beca gestured that she couldn't hear Chloe even though she damn well could and she figured her friend knew that too. She wasn't stupid or by any means oblivious, quite the opposite actually. There was no doubt in Beca's mind that the ginger had already pieced this whole scenario together, the gears in her head turning like mad as they tried to dissect the situation. Well fuck. She was totally going to hear about this later.

And of course the German woman chose that exact second to wink rather obviously and Beca loudly choked on the air she was breathing in. Jesus, what was wrong with her? Oh, she knew exactly what was wrong with her and it was hot and German, but that was so beside the point right now because she wasn't some complete horny idiot. Except that maybe she was. Because she accidentally stumbled into Chloe in her overreaction and the German woman grinned, wide and triumphant.

Beca turned around and faced the front again. She couldn't look back that way again. She was going to watch Muse. That was why she was here. Except now the rest of the set felt like an eternity and she sort of wanted it to be over so she could go to the meet and greet. She groaned internally and tried to find that happy spot she was in before, but it just wouldn't come.

An hour later Beca was drying her hands on her jeans. Again. And Chloe was still staring at her. Really, so was the rest of the group and Fat Amy was making comments about how "their fearless leader looked like she was about to get eaten by a crocodile." Which, honestly Beca wasn't sure was far from the truth.

"Beca," Chloe said, unable to wait any longer. Beca had brushed her off as they were leaving the concert, walking towards the merch tables again, but now here they were again in front of DSM's merch table instead of the one set up for Muse. "You're here to see the blonde hot one." It wasn't a question this time.

Beca looked away and shifted from foot to foot. "Um, no, I mean I liked all of them. Why can't I just want to talk to all of them without getting the third degree, geeze."

"Because I saw her wink at you," Chloe said.

And now Fat Amy and Stacie were betting on which hot blonde one Chloe meant and Aubrey was looking over Beca in that way that always made Beca feel about two inches tall and stripped naked. She hated that look.

"It could have been at someone else," Beca protested weakly.

"You fell into Chloe. That was right after wasn't it?" Aubrey stepped forward, morphing instantly into the militant leader the Bellas had known three years before.

"Ugh, yes, fine, Jesus, she winked at me. I went to the merch table earlier to meet her. That's why I have this hoodie." She held it out and shook it. "Now can we drop it because we are almost at the front of the line and I really don't want to look like an idiot."

"Well, more than you already have, if you fell over after she winked at you," Fat Amy said.

"Thank you for that confidence boost, Amy," Beca growled.

"You're welcome. If you need it I have some more butt confidence for you."

"No!" Beca moved away from her while Stacie snickered.

"Hey, if it's the leader woman who was singing that Beca has the hots for, I'd totally do her. You have good taste," Stacie said when she stopped laughing.

Beca had to simultaneously keep herself from blushing and strangling Stacie. She already felt proprietary claim over a woman she hadn't really met and didn't even know her name. She needed to reign it the fuck in, but of course she couldn't do that because that would take the self control that had left her apparently the second that DSM had gotten on stage.

But then they were suddenly at the front of the line again and Beca was face to face with the goddess of a woman, and nothing mattered. She felt her group scatter to other members. Stacie sidled up to a with long black hair and eyes a little blue lighter than Beca's goddess, still dressed in all the leather and mesh they'd worn on stage, a flirty smile on her face. Chloe and Aubrey somehow ended up in front of the beatboxer and Aubrey was sort of hounding him about technique while Chloe looked at Aubrey with a lovesick expression on her face. And of course Fat Amy went right for the male soloist, but not before muttering about man candy.

"Uh, hi," Beca said, walking forward, thankful that she was at least semi-alone now.

"Hello again, little mouse. How was the show for you?" The woman smirked.

Beca couldn't stop staring at her perfect face, smile, everything. "I really liked the song 'Undisclosed Desires' they did it really well tonight. It was special."

"Yes, I felt the same way." Her eyes swept over Beca's form slowly, lingering.

Beca felt so fucking hot in that moment. She wasn't sure she wasn't going to catch on fire, but what a way to burn, caught in ice blue fire.

"What's your name, little mouse?" the woman asked.

Beca actually had to stop and think about what her own name was. Oh, she was in for it. "B-Beca."

"Cute, it matches you perfectly." She looked down at the table, but Beca's eyes didn't shift from her head, tracing the line of her part, down over her shoulders, taking her in fully. She wanted to reach out and touch her, but knew that was way the fuck over the line. She did have at least some control.

"I bet your name is like angels singing. Except you already are an angel, so that wouldn't be hard." Beca could probably slap herself just for that. Jesus.

The woman looked up at her amused. She pushed a glossy photograph forward, signed, Beca could tell from a glance, but she really didn't look hard. Her eyes were drawn back to the blue ones looking at her, still smirking, still beautiful.

"Danke, maus. I would like to hear you screaming my name even more."

Beca's brain just fucking stopped. The woman in front of her couldn't have said that. Things like that didn't happen to her. They just didn't. Gorgeous women didn't just insinuate that they wanted to have sex with her. That was something that happened to rock stars. And the woman in front of her was the rock star not vice versa, though Beca wasn't fucking sure that she hadn't crossed into the twilight zone so she wasn't sure.

Chloe and Aubrey were suddenly behind her. "Hey, Becs, you done?" Chloe asked.

Beca wanted to claw her friend's eyes out, but in a loving manner because she was still Beca's best friend.

The woman smiled again. "Enjoy your night with your friends, little mouse. I'm sure we'll see each other again."

Beca took her signed picture from the table and Chloe physically dragged her away to go get Fat Amy, who was still talking to the German man.

"You couldn't handle all of this!" Amy said in her normally over loud voice.

"Oh, I don't think I want to," the man said, eying security, but not calling them over. At least someone was having less of a chance flirting, though Fat Amy's flirting style was usually hit or miss depending on the guy. This one just wasn't biting.

"Fine, I eat German chumps like you for lunch!"

Chloe tapped on Fat Amy's shoulder. "Come on."

"All right, Red, fine. But let it be known that this one is an idiot." She gestured at the German man who looked offended, yet amused, and also maybe slightly turned on. Which was how most guys felt around Amy, so it was normal.

Beca followed them out in a daze, not really registering when Stacie popped up again, smirking, lipstick a bit smudged, and a number on a scrap of paper. And damn if Amy had been worse, Stacie was always better. Beca almost felt like asking for tips on how to get with her angel. Almost. She wasn't that desperate yet, because that would totally lead to all of the Bellas getting in on it and holy Jesus, no.

"Alcohol?" Chloe asked.

"God, yes please," Beca said and the rest of the group agreed.

"Awesome, I know this club a couple streets over." She smiled as she turned to Aubrey. "Be our designated driver, love?"

"Of course."

Beca never could figure out how Chloe had Aubrey so damn wrapped around her finger, but she figured it had something to do with sex, and she really didn't want to know. Except now that led her to thoughts of sex with another blonde woman, and ugh she really needed that alcohol.

"Come on then!" Chloe bounced forward and out into the night and Beca could tell that this was going to be one of those nights that weren't all there come morning. She found that she didn't mind, so long as she remembered her angel and followed Chloe outside.